THOUSAND OAKS — Offensive rebounds and turnovers cost the Occidental College women's basketball team in a 67-48 loss to Cal Lutheran on Saturday.

The Tigers struggled to break Cal Lutheran's 1-2-1-1 full-court pressure, committing 28 turnovers — 16 of them in the first half.

On the other end of the court, Oxy's defense was solid until the shot went up. The Tigers gave up 18 offensive boards and were outrebounded 50-25.

"You can't turn the ball over like we did today and give up that many offensive rebounds and expect to win many games," Oxy coach Anahit Aladzhanyan said. "Their pressure bothered us and we gave them way too many extra looks."

Oxy falls to 7-5 overall and 1-3 in SCIAC play. Cal Lu improves to 5-7 and 1-3.

Michelle Naito-Lo led Oxy with 11 points, Ashton Reid added eight and Brittni Walker had seven.

Jessica Salotto led the Regals with 14 points off of the bench.

Cal Lu jumped out to a 12-5 lead and held about a seven-point advantage for most of the first half. Naito-Lo cut the lead to 21-18 on a back door play from Haley Graham around the 7-minute mark. But the Regals press forced three consecutive turnovers, extending the lead back to nine less than 1 minute later.

Cal Lu finished the half on a 16-4 run, taking a 37-22 lead into the locker room.

Oxy got outrebounded 24-11 in the first half.

Reid and Naito-Lo hit back-to-back 3-pointers to open the second half, cutting Cal Lu's lead to single digits (37-28) with 18:45 left in the game. But Oxy got sloppy with the ball again and Cal Lu jumped back out in front by 18 points.

The Tigers return to action at Whittier on Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m.

"We have an important week of practice coming up and then another opportunity on the road against Whittier," Aladzhanyan said.

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